The invention relates to an upper mattress for reclining and seating furniture, comprising a foam substance member having a series of continuous cavities which extend transversely to its longitudinal axis.
Sleep is undoubtedly the most valuable source of regeneration and relaxation available to the stressed human being of our time.
In the course of the past decade and a half, critical experts and users have justifiably examined and investigated the suitability of the bed which is to offer the necessary recovery to those who are tired and exhausted. A strict objective scientific approach and subjective criteria of comfort must cooperate in order to combine the numerous factors to be taken into account in the design of reclining furniture into a system capable of offering refreshing sleep.
One of the essential factors of a bed is the upper or top mattress, conventionally briefly described as a mattress and the subject of varied and complex development over recent decades. Its function as a direct support for the resting body is to confer and equalize the resiliently supporting action of the bottom mattress. The expert knows that the material quality of a foam mattress, also expressed in the service life and form stability of the foam substance, increases with an increasing bulk density of the foam substance. The use of foam substances of high quality is however limited in the sense that such foam substances are too hard and could therefore hitherto not be used for the production of top mattresses or only by tolerating an impairment of the resilient characteristics.
Although manufacturers of top mattresses dealt extensively with the problems of selecting materials and of the covering and were able to achieve a wide acceptance of the foam substance top mattress by virtue of its spring characteristics and heat retention characteristics, the problem of variable hardness dependent on loading (spring characteristics) and of automatic ventilation, more particularly while avoiding moist pockets of cold air, remain in principle unsolved.
The prior art discloses foam substance top mattresses assembled from foam substances of different hardness and therefore capable of providing a limited progressiveness of the resilient supporting force (reaction of the foam substance on the load). However, the loading characteristics of these top mattresses are still unsatisfactory when taking into account the locally widely deviating loading applied by the body, which also moves while sleeping. The necessity of constant and effective ventilation as well as discharge of moisture was recognized only in the course of the last few years and is still waiting for a satisfactory solution.